Blog Posts by Parentables

The DuggarsWhen it comes to Mother's Day I'm lucky because our family is nearby, and just being together and enjoying a special meal is pretty special for me. Sometimes the kids want to take me out, but sometimes they fix my favorite meal, chicken and dumplings -- I love chicken and dumplings!

Read More From Michelle Duggar: 19 Kids, 19 Different Personalities

Jim Bob always encourages them to make cards for me because I like handmade special notes that they write. It's not about an expensive card or gift or anything like that. It's just really about those treasures that I put in my keepsake box that I can look at years later, pull out and see the sweet little notes that they wrote and the pictures that they drew for me.

Read More From Michelle Duggar: What the Duggars Can Teach You About Going with the Flow

My 15-year-old son Josiah is quite the artist. He'll just draw these really pretty pictures and write, "Mom, I'm just really glad that you had me. I'm so grateful to be here." It's just

LMFAODoes this make sense to you? CNN has the story of a Colorado first grader suspended from school for singing "Sexy and I Know It." Really?!

Read More: "Pregnant and I Know It" Takes a Funny Look at Pregnancy (Video)

My daughter was singing it the other morning, before the bus came to pick her up. I hope she doesn't do that in school. Granted, my daughter is in 5th grade. But my other daughter is in second. And both of them are known to (innocently) sing the LMFAO song once in a while, even if I'm pretty sure they don't know what LMFAO means.

Read More: 8th Grader Punished for Witnessing School Bus Sex

So what? Of course, children shouldn't be "sexy." But suspending a kid from school for "sexual harassment"? According to the report, the boy was suspended for three days from Sable Elementary School in Aurora for quoting the song. He apparently sang it to a female classmate, twice. Now was he just singing the chorus, or was he getting into the lyrics? "Girl, look at that body"? Did he

Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief, American VogueNot too long ago, I saw the documentary film The September Issue, which goes behind the scenes of Vogue Magazine's iconic fashion issue released every fall. The film itself was OK. I was more interested in Vogue's editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour's, friendship with Roger Federer than I was with the inner workings of the magazine. I've always found Vogue to be pretentious and not really based in reality.

Read More: Reflections on Vogue Mom's Stuggle with Her Daughter's Obesity

However, I was struck by two things. One, Wintour has an amazing ability to scan a page and know immediately what works and what doesn't, within seconds. And if something doesn't work, she knows exactly what will fix it. And second, Wintour doesn't seem to care too much about social issues when it comes to running a successful magazine. That's what I thought, anyway.

Read More: Will Regulating Photoshopped Ads Save Girls' Self Esteem?

While she is among the top editors to use a diverse group of models to

Bare feet on a dirt road: a healthy combination.Allergies are a common cause of concern for many modern parents. From being careful when introducing solid foods to reading up on chemical hazards, there are plenty of ways to reduce risk. But one of the most effective methods may be one of the simplest - don't let your kids live too clean a life.

Read More: How Taking My Daughter for Walks Changed My Life

You see, early exposure to dust, dirt, bacteria and all that other small stuff we try to eliminate from our lives may play a crucial role in building our kids immune systems and overall health.

Read More: 5 Ways to Get Outside With Your Kids Every Day...Because Half of Us Don't

The "play in the dirt" approach to healthy parenting may have just gotten another boost in the form of research - reported on over at redOrbit - that Amish kids have remarkably low rates of allergies, even compared to Swiss children who are recognized Globally for their own lack of allergies:

He'll figure it out eventually.When my husband, Jim Bob, was a little boy he had a speech impediment, and he really struggled with reading. As a homeschool mom, understanding his perspective helped me to not have certain expectations about how my kids would all learn.

Read More From Michelle Duggar: 19 Kids, 19 Different Personalities

When we were first married, we would read the Scriptures together in the mornings, and I would read, and then he'd take a turn. He would literally flip words around and put different words in different places.

Read More From Michelle Duggar: How Michelle Duggar Motivates Her Kids

I noticed some of our kids had the same struggle. It was important to be able to explain to them, "It doesn't mean that you're not smart. You're very smart." Those are the kids who may struggle with some parts of schoolwork but can fix anything, take stuff apart and really understand how things work.

Read More From Michelle Duggar: What the Duggars Can Teach You About Going with the Flow

BibleWe already know that gender non-conforming kids are more likely to be abused for not following strict pre-conceived stereotypes about what boys and girls are "supposed" to do. From playing with the "wrong" toys to the characters they choose in role play, even the most seemingly innocuous preferences can mark them out as targets if they "deviate" from the norm.

Read More: Anti-Gay Literature Sparks Row Over State-Funded Faith Schools

But how does this targeting come about? A pastor's recent tirade from the pulpit gives us some clues.

As North Carolina prepares to vote on a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman (opponents of the amendment say it will also strip domestic partnership privileges and threaten all unmarried couples), one NC pastor has created a fire storm of outrage by suggesting that parents should "crack" their boys' limp wrists, give them a "good punch" if they act too girly, and keep their women folk in check if they

Alana EvansPorn is not a topic that comes up a lot on a parenting site like parentables. (Although we have explored the shocking news that teenage boys like to masturbate. A lot.) But as society seems to be adopting increasingly liberal attitudes about adult entertainment, it may be time to start discussing our attitudes - not just toward porn itself, but toward the people who work in the industry.

Read More: Top 7 OMG Parenting Moments of 2011

After all, every single porn star is somebody's son or daughter, and many of them are also parents themselves. This was the topic of the recent Dr. Drew show, featuring adult movie actress Alana Evans, asking whether porn stars can be good parents. Alana, for her part, argued that porn gave her a way out of an abusive relationship:

JoyrideThere is no doubt that today's grandparents aren't much like the generation before them. There are a lot fewer rocking chairs and a lot more activities. Many grandparents even like to take their grandkids out to do their favorite activities. But some grandparents should think twice (or in some cases a hundred million times) before they do so, especially when their favorite past time is drinking, driving, and towing things behind their car as one set of Florida grandparents was recently caught doing with their granddaughter.

Read More: Top 7 OMG Parenting Moments of 2011

According to The Smoking Gun, Paul Berloni, 49, and Linda Berloni, 47, were arrested on child cruelty charges (among other things) on Saturday after an officer saw them towing their seven-year-old granddaughter's child size motorized toy car down the road behind their own SUV...with her in it! Can you imagine? But it gets way worse. Perhaps the only person who would think this was a good idea would be a drunk